Golden Oldies to conquer beer can regatta

Men's Shed members take the Golden Oldies for a test run ahead of the beer can regatta. Patrick Collins says attendance at shed meetings has increased since the boat building project began (supplied :)

The Magnetic Island Men's Shed entry into this year's Bay Dayz festival beer can regatta was always going to be something special.

Constructed by a team of builders that include a retired ship's pilot, naval officer and a carpenter, the vessel 'Golden Oldies' is made of thousands of beer cans donated by friends, clubs and pubs.

"And you should see the arguments that it caused!" said shed president Patrick Collins.

"Discussions as to where this should go and where that should go, who has messed up this and who has messed up that."

It's not all about building boats

The project has attracted a lot of interest and attendance at the shed's bi-weekly sessions has been up since the boat building started.

The vessel may be the catalyst for the congregation, but the shed is a vital forum for the men to develop a sense of community and find meaning in their lives says Patrick.

"A lot of us have had jobs that were fairly demanding and when you retire you have gone from being a rooster to a feather duster and possibly losing all of your feathers!" he said.

"It builds their esteem and gives them a reason for facing the world each morning."

The shed's membership come from a generation that were not raised on computers says Patrick, which makes the experience of living in an isolated community more challenging.

"Everything now is done with computers all our banking is done with computers... therefore we run computer classes down there with our members so we can bring them up to speed," he said.

Ready to race

The regatta team took the Golden Oldies vessel out for a test run ahead of next month's competition, to test its seaworthiness and to consider placement of stabilisers.

Patrick thinks the vessel will do well but the group are prioritising fun over performance.

"We don't need to win anything, we have won it in making the boat and getting the boys together to do it," he said.